The Sun, the Moon & Ripe Cucumbers
Stuart Payne

November 2025
84pp
200mm x 130mm
ISBN: 9781037016868

DISTRIBUTED ON BEHALF OF CRANE RIVER

From the winner of the 2022 National Poetry Prize, Stuart Payne’s second collection showcases the growth of a bright, refined voice in South African poetry. His metrical, often rhyming style blends traditional poetic forms with modern rhythms, echoing patterns found in popular music.

“Stuart Payne is a wordsmith of great skill. There is not a phrase nor a rhythm out of place. His subject range extends from the heavenly bodies to his eponymous cucumbers.”
– Geoff Haresnape

“This is a carefully crafted, and generous collection, sensitive to the intricacies of everyday life and mindful of its transitory, often illusive, generally wondrous nature.”
– Patricia Schonstein

Stuart Payne is a poet and writer, born and based in Cape Town, having spent part of his early childhood in Auckland, New Zealand.

He is the current chairperson of Off the Wall, Cape Town’s oldest running poetry group, and also volunteers for Stanzas, a leading South African poetry magazine. He studied English at the University of Cape Town, French at the Alliance française du Cap, and has worked in animal rescue.

Stuart released his debut collection, Voices from Another Room, in 2018 through Crane River (distributed by uHlanga). Stuart was the winner of the 2022 National Poetry Prize, for his poem “Words for Dia!kwain.”